Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.63/No.26 i Beijing Review

Due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, some countries banned grain exports this year while some faced invasion by locust swarms, reducing global grain supplies. This triggered concerns about whether China would face a grain shortage this year. However, the good news is that the summer harvest has been a bumper one and will increase the nation’s confidence in being able to guarantee its food security. With almost 90 percent of summer harvest completed by June 15, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MOA) announced that grain acreage is stable while the yield has improved. This year, summer grain acreage is about 27 million hectares, almost the same as in the previous year, but the per-hectare yield has increased by nearly 60 kilograms. One reason for this is the MOA…

Green rice seedlings dotting swathes of barren land in Qaidam Basin on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a refreshing sight since the land, with its high salt content, could hardly grow even grass in the past. It’s hard to imagine that the crop, which requires a substantial amount of fresh water to survive, is able to grow in such an inhospitable environment. It’s the first time the experiment to plant saline-alkaline tolerant rice strains has been carried out at such a high altitude, 2,800 meters above sea level. The varieties were successfully developed in 2017 by a team of agricultural scientists. The team started to grow the rice in a few areas at first and gradually expanded to different parts of the country. This year, it plans to grow some 67,000…

China Report ASEAN: The development of relations between China and the Philippines has reached a new stage. What is your opinion on its current state? Huang Xilian: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte have placed considerable effort on improving bilateral relations in recent years, so the two countries have maintained peace and friendship, expanded economic and trade cooperation and increased people-to-people exchanges. These efforts have propelled the steady development of our friendship. President Xi and President Duterte have met eight times since 2016, and high-level interactions between the two countries have been very frequent, giving powerful impetus to bilateral relations. China and the Philippines have properly solved disputes and maintained close cooperation in various fields including anti-terrorism, humanitarian relief, disaster mitigation and peacekeeping. Meetings of the China-Philippines…

At the age of 13, Zhao Yang, a resident of Xiaozhao Village in Nangong City, Hebei Province in north China, lost his arms due to electric shock. He said the accident changed his life in the blink of an eye. He had to give up schooling. “I was in desperation at that time.” But thanks to the help and care of his family and relatives, Zhao gradually learned to take care of himself and started thinking about what he could do in future. In 2003, he learned to use the computer, typing with his feet. Six years later, he started his online store selling quilts with cotton wadding, as Nangong is rich in cotton. Now, the annual sales of Zhao’s store exceed 1 million yuan ($141,000), and its products are…

In 2000, when a 3-year-old Chinese Internet technology company called NetEase made its debut on the Nasdaq, the results were far from spectacular. Its stock price declined continuously and it was delisted for four months due to financial problems. Ding Lei, its founder, said he wanted to sell the company. Twenty years later, it is another story. NetEase today is one of the world’s largest Internet companies and on June 11, Ding rang the bell for the company’s second listing on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX). Due to the novel coronavirus, it was a cloud listing done from the office of NetEase in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province in east China. A total of 171 million new shares were issued at the price of HK$123 ($15.87) per share, one of…

A 7-year-old girl recites Welcome Rain on a Spring Night, a poem from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), in front of a thatched cottage in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in southwest China. “The good rain knows its season, when spring arrives. It brings life… Dawn sees this place now red and wet, the flowers in Chengdu are heavy with rain.” The cottage is one of the most famous attractions for literary pilgrims from all over the country. Its long-ago dweller Du Fu (712-770), author of Welcome Rain on a Spring Night, is a legendary poet who has greatly influenced China for over a 1,000 years. The scene is part of Du Fu, China’s Greatest Poet, a BBC documentary first aired in April. Directed by Michael Wood, a historian at the University of…

On June 10, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) released the results of the second national census on pollution sources. Compared with the first census in 2010, the results of this report are encouraging. Levels of sulfur dioxide, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nitrogen oxide in the air and water dropped by 72 percent, 46 percent and 34 percent respectively compared with 10 years ago, demonstrating the success of China’s environmental protection efforts in recent years. To boost the accuracy of results, new technologies like big data and hi-tech analysis tools were used for the surveys. The goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way is supposed to be reached in 2020. A well-off society is not only defined by its economy, but the quality of its…

EX-CHINESE ENVOY’S NEW POST Cheng Yonghua, former Chinese ambassador to Japan, has been appointed executive vice president of the China-Japan Friendship Association, a historic organization established in 1963 at then Premier Zhou Enlai’s initiative. Cheng, 66, first went to Japan in 1973 as one of the first batch of Chinese students going overseas for higher education. Since then, he lived and worked in Japan for over 30 years. Joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1977, Cheng served in various posts at the Chinese Embassy in Japan, including secretary, director and counselor. In 2010, he was appointed Chinese ambassador to Japan. Cheng’s tenure is the longest among Chinese ambassadors to Japan since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1972. Before he left Japan in 2019, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo…

Based in Chicago, Illinois, Wanxiang America, the U.S. subsidiary of Wanxiang Group, China’s largest auto parts company, has been a member of the local business community for almost three decades. From a three-person team with $20,000 in cash investment to transforming into a $4-billion company that employs 20,000 people around the world, Wanxiang America is an example of Chinese companies that have their roots in the U.S. and are thriving. After the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic hit the Midwest region, Pin Ni, President of Wanxiang America, donated 250,000 masks and 30,000 face shields to Chicago in May. “Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off,” read the tag on the boxes containing the personal protective equipment. Ni, as a Chinese business leader in the…

Lai Huigang, founder of Xiaoerjie, a fresh food store chain, thanks a recent government policy for his organization’s expansion in May despite the effects of the novel coronavirus. Xiaoerjie opened three new stores in Jiangmen, a city in Guangdong Province, south China, after receiving a shot in the arm from a state guarantee finance program. Like other small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Xiaoerjie too had been rattled by the epidemic. Its sales in the city had dropped by 50 percent in the first quarter and some stores had run out of capital. Banks became even more cautious of lending money to SMEs like Xiaoerjie, given their low ability to withstand risk. However, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Jiangmen launched a program with 10 banks to bail out…

China has renewed its commitment to improving the quality of listed companies as the country, with the world’s second-largest equity market in value, continues to deepen market-oriented financial reforms. “Ensuring validity, transparency and legality of listed companies through multi-pronged measures is at the core of protecting the legitimate interests of investors,” Yan Qingmin, Vice Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said at a meeting on June 6. Yan listed a raft of efforts already in motion, and vowed to pursue a slew of other measures including cracking down on financial statement fraud, delisting unqualified firms and strengthening deterrence against misconducts. Calling financial statement fraud a “tumor” in the securities market that defies the fundamental concept of information disclosure, Yan reiterated taking a tough stance on uprooting the unlawful…

The author is director of the EU-China Program at the Centre International de Formation Européenne The impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the world economy is yet to be assessed. Estimations are particularly difficult because plans are being continuously reconsidered and priorities require adjustments. Life in some countries has returned to normalcy but concerns about a second wave and the psychological fear of citizens to go back to their 2019 daily routine remain natural obstacles. One of the critical questions is how the big economic shock caused by COVID-19 will be overcome in the future. It is here that the Belt and Road Initiative deserves special attention. Until the COVID-19 outbreak, the initiative, consisting of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, had emerged…

Electricity use, a key indicator of economic activities, shows that the Chinese economy is recovering from the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic. In May, total electricity consumption rose 4.6 percent year on year, an increase of 3.9 percentage points from that of the previous month, with power consumption in the manufacturing hub Guangdong Province in south China soaring 9.29 percent year on year to over 62.9 billion kWh, the first positive year-on-year monthly growth this year. Amid continuing virus containment measures, China’s economy has maintained an upward trend with major economic indicators gradually improving. As Liu Huan, a counselor with the State Council, China’s cabinet, said at a briefing held by the State Council Information Office on June 11, the economy has seen recovery in the second…

($1=7 yuan) Fixed Assets Investment Growth in China (% y.o.y.) Fixed Assets Investment Growth in China by Sector January-May (% y.o.y.) Primary industry: Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery Secondary industry: Mining, manufacturing, construction, and electricity, thermal, fuel gas and water production and supply Tertiary industry: Services Fixed Assets Investment Growth in China by Region January-May (% y.o.y.) (Source: National Bureau of Statistics) China’s mobile game sector continued to grow in May due to reduced outings and more playing time at home. The sales revenue of the online game market reached 17.68 billion yuan in the month, up 11.9 percent from April. The cargo transport industry reported improved performance in May as business activities further resumed. The China Transportation Services Index stood at 144.6 points, down 16.5 percent year on…